[SOLVED] Can Rufus Clone a USB Drive?

Can Rufus Clone USB drive?

 

No. Rufus focuses on speed and simplicity for bootable drives, from ISO files or disk images, not for direct USB-to-USB cloning. If you insist on using Rufus, you need to prepare an ISO file (Windows, Linux, UEFI, etc.), or image USB drive first, then write it to the target USB using Rufus’s DD mode- but it’s slower and less direct.

Rufus excels at bootable USB creation, not cloning. Choose the right tool for your task to save time and avoid data risks. Need a specific cloning tool? Read on.

How to Clone a Bootable USB Drive using Rufus [Direct vs Imaging]

Although Rufus does not support USB to USB cloning, it allows you to create USB from bootable ISO, faster and more straightforward, or image USB and write it to another one, depending on whether the ISO image file is available.

⚠️Notes:
✔ You need to download ISO file from Microsoft, Clonezilla, Linux, etc., before creating a bootable USB. If not, create an image file of USB drive using Rufus first.
✔ The target USB drive needs to be equal to the image file or bootable ISO, and for better performance, larger USB drives are recommended.

Directly Create Bootable USB from ISO Image File

Step 1. Download and install Rufus from the official website. Open Rufus and select the target USB drive in the “Device” menu. Be sure to connect your USB drive and it’s detected.

Step 2. Under the Boot selection menu, click Select and browse to mount bootable ISO image file.

Step 3. Rufus will automatically recognize the partition scheme, target system, and file system from the selected image file. Just confirm it andclick Start >OK (when it prompts, all data on the target USB will be destroyed) to create USB from bootable ISO.

Image USB Drive to Another One [without ISO File]

Part 1: Create Disk Image of USB Drive

Step 1. Open Rufus. Connect the bootable USB drive to your computer and select it in the"Device" menu.

Step 2. Click the floppy icon next to the “Device”menu. Then, select a location to save the image file and specify a name to distinguish it from others.

Step 3. Click Save and select compressed VHDX image in the Save as type drop-down menu. It is more compatible.

Step 4. After creating the image file, you need to write it to target USB drive. Follow the steps to directly create a bootable USB drive.

Part 2: Write Disk or ISO Image to Another USB

Step 1. Insert the new SD card into your computer and select it in the “Device” menu.

Step 2. Under the Boot selection menu, click Select and browse to select the disk image file.

Step 3. Rufus will automatically recognize the partition scheme, target system, and file system from the selected image file. Just confirm it and click Start >OK to write image file to another USB.

Best Alternative to Clone USB Drive [Bootable]

A dedicated disk cloning software is necessary for direct USB to USB clone. AOMEI Cloner, with its user-friendly interface and powerful cloning capabilities, is a highly recommended choice.

Step 1. Connect the two USB drives to your computer and be sure they’re recognized. Open AOMEI Cloner after installing and click Clone > Disk Clone to get started.

Step 2. Select your bootable USB as the source drive and another USB drive as the target drive. Note that the cloning process will overwrite the target USB drive. So please back up any existing data on the USB drive.

Step 3. It will automatically resize the target USB drive to full capacity (if it’s large). You can click Edit Partitions to confirm this and then click Start Clone to clone bootable USB to USB in Windows.

After cloning, you must perform a boot test to confirm if the cloned drive is bootable. The drive can then be used as needed.

• Power on and enter BIOS (press F2, F10, ESC, etc., during startup). Set the target USB drive as the first boot device in the Boot menu.
• Press F10 to save changes and exit. It will navigate to the Windows recovery environment.

Conclusion

Rufus can’t clone USB to USB as it’s a booatble media creator instead of cloning tool. If you insist on using Rufus, you can choose to create a new bootable USB or image/write to USB drive as alternative. For dedicated cloning software, AOMEI Cloner is recommended due to its powerful capacities and user-friendly interface.